As is well known to those skilled in the art, middle distillate fuels typified by diesel oil, fuel oils, kerosene, etc may be burned to produce heat and/or power. Typically this is carried out by injecting the fuel into a combustion chamber through a fuel injector (in the case of a diesel engine) or a burner nozzle (in the case of a jet engines or a steam generating plant).
It is found that the small passageways in the injectors or nozzles in due course become plugged due to deposits which collect therein. These deposits may include solids formed as by reaction of diesel fuel with the metal in the injector or nozzle, or by pyrolytic effects in the nozzle or injector arising from the heat of combustion in the engine or the furnace chamber.
These deposits are clearly undesirable. They may result in uneven spray pattern leading to inefficient combustion and in the worst case scenario may totally block passage of oil to the point of combustion. As a practical matter, plugging of injectors and nozzles is correlative with and is measured by an increase in black smoke in the exhaust or stack gas.
Typical of prior art attempts to solve this or related problem may be noted the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,884 to Texaco Inc. as assignee of A. M. Mourao discloses use as a fuel additive of a monoalkoxylated nonyl phenol.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,379 to Texaco Inc. as assignee of W. M. Sweeney, R. L. Sunq, and W. C. Crawford discloses use as fuel additive of oxyethylene, oxypropylene tertiary amines as additives to stabilize fuels against sediment formation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,051 to Texaco Inc. as assignee of Rodney L. Suno discloses diesel oil stabilized by addition of the reaction product of an alkyl polyoxyethylene polyoxypropyleneamine, maleic acid anhydride, and an N-alkyl alkylene diamine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,566 to Texaco Inc. as assignee of W. C. Crawford et al discloses diesel oil stabilized by addition of an alpha, omega diamino poly(oxypropylene) poly(oxyethylene) poly(oxypropylene).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,482,354 to Texaco Inc. as assignee of William M. Sweeney, and Rodney L. Sung, Wheeler C. Crawford discloses middle distillates extended with shale oil containing (alkylpolyoxyalkyl)amino alkanoic acids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,497 to UOP as assignee of G. W. Y. Kwong discloses hydrocarbon oils stabilized against sedimentation by addition of the reaction product of a poly(oxyalkylene) amine with an epichlorohydrin.
It is an object of this invention to provide a middle distillate fuel characterized by its ability to decrease deposit formation. It is a particular object of this invention to provide a diesel fuel characterized by decreased deposit formation in fuel injectors. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.